Man Utd keep winning but keep being incredibly flawed. And one man sums up that pattern: Mr mirror image himself Bruno Fernandes.
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Man Utd: The madness and the magnificence
Another week, another match, three more points, should’ve scored more goals, could’ve easily conceded more but a win is a win and our unbeaten run continues.
Repeatedly getting bailed out by our forwards despite not being clinical and teams getting at us easily but not scoring enough, the continuous theme in our recent matches.
Our defence has relatively been good – Varane and Dalot have been excellent recently. No negatives on Onana in the past few matches, Mainoo and Casemiro playing well and our forwards finally firing yet we seem to be hanging by the thread in all these matches and our wins have certainly not been comfortable.
Is it down to tactics or individual mistakes or a combination of both I don’t seem to understand.
The only upside is that we have started to score goals especially Rasmus who seems to be operating in top form at the moment and Alejandro and Marcus seemingly playing well despite still not being decisive on when to pass or shoot. Sometimes the link up play is unbelievable and at times they are trying too much, which keeps us fans always on the edge of our seats.
READ: Hojlund hot streak continues to save Man United from themselves and their own thickness
All this talk of our forwards firing and only the front three are mentioned, no mention of the other most important forward player in Bruno Fernandes. Our captain is definitely struggling at the moment. Having not scored in the league since November he was presented with numerous clear-cut opportunities yesterday and he fluffed his lines.
He truly is the mirror image of our team, he delivers some unbelievable passes from time to time yet he will misplace a three-yard pass, he will create glorious chances for others but when the opportunity presents itself to him he’ll not score. And in injury time when we are deep in the opponents’ half, rather than keep the ball he’ll hit it straight into the hands of the opponents’ goalkeeper. Luckily his name is not Harry Maguire else he would’ve been dropped from the team by now.
All in all when we play it is good fun from a neutral perspective. The real test of the current form will begin when we travel to Forest in the FA Cup and then to the Etihad in two weeks’ time. Until then ETH for the manager of the month and Rasmus for the player of the month in February.
Vasanthan Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
…Seems churlish to be writing this off the back of a win but I am becoming increasingly fed up of the lack of maturity/game management coming from our manager and captain.
United have lost several leads so far this year and rarely look in control of a game having gone ahead. The number of awful decisions made in the final 15 minutes of the game which result in loss of possession or opportunities for the opposition is ridiculous.
Both of these issues come down to terrible game management from ETH, who seems to think throwing on as many defenders as possible to soak up endless pressure is a sound tactic, and a real lack of IQ from Bruno on the pitch. Happened again at Luton this weekend. United are holding on to a lead in the 90th minute and from a corner, rather than retain possession and count the clock down, Bruno puts in the lamest of shots to gift Luton one final attack. This happens time and time again – the blame is on the players and the management.
One, the other, or both need to change. If Saudi want to come and offer us 40 mil for Bruno in the summer, I’d take it in a heartbeat. Big changes required if we want to progress and start competing with the top 4 again.
Jim, Manchester (Miserable)
They’re like Spurs without the Spursiness
I’m a neutral in all this – I’m way past the point of celebrating wildly when Man U suffer a defeat. Almost. But aren’t they the most frustrating team for a Toon fan who until recently had aspirations of finishing above 17th at best & thus wasn’t too bothered about who got European places.
They are rich enough but they haven’t bought in the superstar names to the league ala Real Madrid, for example an Mbappe or a Messi which would be awesome to watch on the reg, (with honourably exceptions to a post-peak Cristiano & the timeless Zlatan). Not good enough to dominate everyone in Europe like some kind of giant, leaking roof, Glazer death star, but never bad enough to truly be laughed at, parasitically sucking onto Champions league/Europe league places.
Not great, not terrible. Like a noughties Spurs but less Spursy.
Make your mind up Reds – dominate Europe or do a full Chelsea, but this is just frustrating!!! A question for Man U fans… would you take 3-4 seasons of mid table (10th/ 11th for clarity) for a guaranteed Premier League or Champs League afterward?
Tarqs, Woolwich NUFC
Please release me…
Just a quick question regarding Dan Ashworth to Manchester United…
Apparently we are baulking at the fee being demanded by Newcastle. Now, I wanted to understand, is there something to stop Ashworth simply quitting Newcastle and accepting an offer from United (if indeed this is what he wanted to do)? Is it as simple as he wants the pay out from Newcastle? Or is there something written in to his contract regarding working for a competitor (this is fairly common in the industry I work in, and I presume this is the reason)?
I know it is different for players/managers, but is this something new with Exec’s or have I just completely missed this previously?
Jack (Given we haven’t had a DoF for about a decade, maybe this is commonplace and I just haven’t noticed it) Manchester
Advantage Liverpool? Not so much
Re Monday’s mailbox and the “advantage Liverpool?” bit.
No one would like that to be the case more than me, but I fear it isn’t quite as simple as that.
A few reasons:
1. Mounting injuries/absences. It’s been a bit like robbing Peter to pay Paul for Liverpool this season. Salah’s back fit? No worries, you’ll lose Jota now for several weeks. Mac Allister’s back after nearly being kneecapped by Sheffield United? Szobozlai will miss a couple of months. And probably Jones too. It’s been constant bad luck and it will probably tell as Liverpool go deep in 4 comps.
2. The away fixtures. Anfield should take care of itself (yes, even against City). But if anyone thinks that Manchester United and Everton are not going to play their cup finals when Liverpool rock up in town, then you’ve got another think coming. Would be amazed if Liverpool take a full haul in those two. Don’t like the look of Villa in the last away game either, that’s not a gimme. They’ve beaten City and Arsenal at home this season. Anything north of 5 points in these fixtures, Liverpool will have done exceptionally well.
3. Help from a certain other team in red. In the same way United will bust a gut at OT against their most hated rivals, history suggests in recent years that the same level of effort will not be on show when they play City during the run in. It’s like they have a choice of two particularly virulent STDs to pick from, so they pick the least nasty option. Red carpet time from them at the Etihad, you watch. Similarly, don’t expect them to be doing cartwheels when they face Arsenal at OT, even with all the history in that fixture.
If Liverpool do win it, it’ll be through a frankly superhuman effort, and without any help from others. You can be sure of that.
A Harper, Swansea
Keep quiet, Arsenal fans
As a mid-40s, life long Arsenal fan, I’m asking for a favour from either the less experienced or the overly confident amongst our fan base.
Please stop (being overly confident; less experienced is out of your control).
I accept the world has changed and we all have immediate access to various platforms to submit our overly excitable opinions.
But just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. There’s a long way go; there’s no conspiracies; Arteta can’t be in, then out, then in again; we need to learn when to use a logical fallacy within a bilge email (learn what red herring means). In fact, just keep the bilge emails/content an absolute minimum? All you’re doing is lining up the abuse that is growing daily for the time when Arsenal don’t achieve their goals.
Take it from me – keep your powder dry and then, if there’s something to celebrate, enjoy it.
Until then. Please keep schtum.
(Wholeheartedly aware that I’m analogue in a digital world and it is all about posting first, even if factually inaccurate or just simply being designed to generate clicks, regardless of the abuse. What a world).
Blok
Back off, referee
RE Kieran in Scotland;
I’ve noticed this for several years, and it drives me absolutely crazy! I understand the Ref should be close to the action, but so often they are at the top of the box, in a position where they’re effectively an extra defender, blocking passing lanes and sightlines for the attacking team, and then if the defence recovers the ball, they’re blocking counter-attacks through the middle! So often you see players dribbling on the edge of the box have to pause or readjust, in order to make a simple square pass, because the ref is in line with the ball or even in front of it. I wonder if there was a directive or something, requiring refs to be close to the box during attacking play, in order to be extra vigilant for penalties and the “crackdown” on diving?
Another irritation is this week, curious what the mailbox thinks. In the City-Chelsea match, Jackson had a great chance on the counter, the pass was from Gusto, I believe. The commentators immediately laid in to Jackson, berating him for not holding or adjusting his run. My impression on first and subsequent viewings was that the pass should have come earlier, and that when it did come, it was behind Jackson.
Yet almost every match report condemns Jackson; the honourable exception being your very own 16 conclusions. If the pass had been earlier Jackson would have had more space and time, and then if it hadn’t been behind him it would have been a relatively inviting one-touch finish.
Sorry, turning into a long mail, but as a Liverpool fan I’m thrilled with how we’re managing to stay ahead and get results despite ever-increasing injuries, but I don’t think our team has the tactical cohesion that Arsenal have, especially in midfield and defence. While I hope that Endo’s return helps in that regard (before he left he really had found his rhythm!) I do think that Arsenal have a more stable base for their title challenge.
Henry, LFC Düsseldorf
Feeling blue
I’m all about innovating before you have to. Blue Cards and VAR are a natural set of tests given other sports (namely rugby) deploy these methods. The issue is no test hypothesis is shared by football’s various governing counsels, no success metrics shared, no criteria for game-wide rollout.
It all seems a bit knee-jerk or rather solutions seeking problems to solve rather than the other way round.
Normal behaviour would ask ‘what is the problem I am trying to solve?’ As the first point of testing, followed by ‘what are we testing?’ Then ‘what does success look like’.
If this was shared with the fans in advance then we would all understand. But when these ‘improvements’ are trialled it appears everyone has already decided they’re here to stay.
Time fans were included in some of this stuff, and transparently involved in the thinking.
Alexander Tovey
…Long time reader (since it was a subscriber email!), occasional contributor and I’d like to contribute to the blue card debate.
As an ex-hockey player, I think the problem with the blue card is actually more to do with the existing yellow and red cards.
In hockey (at least when I used to play) the 3 card system was: Green for a warning, Yellow for sin-bin and Red for sending-off.
The important difference is that two greens did not necessarily equate to a yellow and two yellows do not equate to a red.
You could get a green card for an offence (e.g. deliberate feet) and another for a different offence (e.g. obstruction) without getting a yellow (sin-bin). However, two greens for the same offence would lead to a yellow and the sin-bin. Learn from your mistakes…
If you received a yellow then you would go in the sin-bin. If you came back on and made the same (or different) offence you would get another yellow and another stint in the bin – not a red.
Red card were for serious foul play and abusing the officials…
For football to introduce the blue card, I think it would be necessary for the whole card system to be overhauled to a similar system.
Also, regarding the goalkeeper getting a yellow (blue) card – you could either play without one (not really an option in football!) or sub one on for the time the 1st choice was off the pitch. This would also need to be factored in to football as hockey had rolling subs (like grassroots football) so removing a player for a keeper was not permanent. Maybe a rolling sub just for when a keeper is in the sin-bin?
I hope the hockey system is still like that (I haven’t played for a number of years now!) so I don’t look completely daft – I’m sure someone will find a reason why this won’t work in football, but I’d like to think it would be less chaotic than just introducing the blue card seemingly without any planning. We all know what will happen – for the first month there will be blue cards in every match which will cause chaos – and then they’ll just forget about it, like all the new other rules such as being booked for taking too long over a throw-in. When has that happened since September..?
Richard, Cambridge (not the Baggie who used to be a regular)
What about the Red Cartel?
As I understand it, the ‘Red Cartel’ argument says that Liverpool and Manchester United, as the economically dominant powers in the Premier League, on whom the other members to a certain extent depend for the TV deal and sponsorship because of their commercial pulling-power, exert undue influence over the Premier League as a whole.
However, many of the same people advancing this argument are also arguing that Manchester CIty’s extraordinary economic performance, which makes THEM on paper the economically dominant power in the Premier League, is entirely legitimate and organic.
I can’t help feel but only one of these arguments can be correct.
Dara O’Reilly, London
…To add to your arguments about the Red Cartel (James Outram, Wirral), it’s worth mentioning the fact the Premier League was set up not by the Big 3 (or 5 with Everton and the Spuds), but by the biggest 22, and the wealth wasn’t to be concentrated at the top of the Premier League, but the top of the whole football pyramid.
For the record I’m not saying this is a good thing, but it wasn’t a conspiracy of the three most successful clubs with the biggest fanbases, it was a wider agreement amongst all those at the top. Even as an Arsenal fan I saw the benefit of the shared wealth model and despite watching Real and Barce claim 90% of La Liga’s TV revenue and use it to hoover up all the talent and trophies felt it was a better system.
Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal have won the most league titles, and a shitload of cups between them, across multiple periods of success; their fanbases are huge, and their fame and recognition global, eclipsed or matched only by the behemoths in Madrid, Barcelona and Munich (maybe some Italian clubs too).
Their wealth is self-generated (unless you go right back to the very beginning of the 20th Century) and their business models largely self-sustaining. Despite this both Liverpool and Arsenal had fallow periods in the 90s and beyond, proving that their historical size was no guarantee of continued success. It was only when the financially doped Chelsea and then Man City turned up to the party and started turbo-charging transfer fees and wages that the “Cartel” started pushing back. Self-interest? No doubt. But they are not wrong to try to preserve some semblance of order and sanity rather than allow the whole thing to keep escalating to god knows where.
Watching grand old institutions fall into administration is a tragedy, football clubs are the heart of their communities and a focal point for many people’s lives, both economically and socially, and they should be revered and protected. So trying to put the brakes on, even a little, shouldn’t be railed against by clubs with new found wealth, but accepted as a necessary way to stop the further escalation of this dangerous spending arms race that has seen transfer fees and player wages enter the realms of the ridiculous.
Newcastle will soon be regulars in the top 4, and will win the league within 5 years, so just bide your time and stop claiming foul.
Alay, N15 Gooner
Bench boost
Kalvin Phillips needs to get back to warming the City bench as soon as possible if he has any chance of going to the Euros.
Luke (Dublin)
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